David Obey: “I do not want to see illegal aliens in this country. I want our laws enforced. I do not want illegals to undercut the…”

“I do not want to see illegal aliens in this country. I want our laws enforced. I do not want illegals to undercut the pay of U.S. workers. There is enough of that going on already. But I frankly am not at all sure that I like the idea of their getting backpay or any other pay. But it would seem to me that unless a provision is created by this amendment that would require such pay instead of going to illegal aliens to go into the Treasury of the United States, then the amendment is deficient and would create an incentive for employers to fire or threaten to fire immigrants and to encourage immigrants to illegally work lest they be exposed by their employers. It is bad enough for employers to hire workers who they know are illegals. But for them to take advantage of illegal aliens, pay them wages which are either substandard or denied at all in the end is to turn substandard wage workers into slaves. That would be even worse. So I would simply suggest that, while the amendment may have a good intention, I do believe that it would have the effect of enabling some unscrupulous importers of illegal aliens to be able to avoid their legal responsibilities and to undercut American wages of American workers in the process.”